The world knew Buddy Scotto for almost 92 years, I was his friend for the past seven.
I first heard about him when I worked for the Brooklyn Phoenix newspaper in the early 1980’s. He was known in the office for getting rid of the ‘stench’ that permeated Carroll Gardens when the wind blew in from the Gowanus Canal.
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I met him in person right after Carlos Menchaca won his first race for Red Hook City Councilman in 2013. We were both on the board of the Carroll Gardens Association, which he founded in 1971. I was researching a long article I wrote about the race, which included a section on Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who had taken Menchaca under her wing.
I read someplace that it was Buddy who had introduced Nydia to her one-time husband Paul Bader. Bader was also involved in the Menchaca election, or so he told me at a victory party on election night at Hope and Anchor.
“Wow, I can actually talk to Scotto,” I thought. So I called him up and asked if I could meet him. “I thought you’d never ask,” was his quick answer.
I publish a community newspaper, Buddy was the penultimate community activist. He was a fighter for affordable housing, for Italian heritage, for Brooklyn’s renewal and more than anything, the creation of a thriving Gowanus Canal commercial and residential district.
He told me about all those things many times. He had millions of stories that he loved to tell. The big thing I learned from him is that until your goal is reached, you have to keep reaching for it. He proselytized for Gowanus at every opportunity. So much so, in fact, that I could tell that a lot of people would write him off as old and having lost his faculties.
In fact, he was sharp as a whip up to the very end. I know, because I would ask him questions about other subjects, and he would speak knowledgably about all manners of subjects.
He was a quiet supporter of Bernie Sanders, but he didn’t really like to be political. We would sit politely at Sal’s Pizza while listening politely to the owners Republican talking points without ever challenging them.
One day he took me to the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel, and watched it bubble and roil the waters as he explained to me how it worked.
He loved to watch the Mets, and a couple times I’d sit with him in his apartment on First Place and share a pint of ice cream, which he also loved.
His private life during the time I knew him wasn’t always the greatest, but except for just a very few times, he accepted his situation with grace and dignity and without ever a complaint.
I guess one of the best things that somebody told me about Buddy and me came from his daughter Debra, who told me that while Buddy had tons of acquaintances, he had very few real friends. Sometimes I feel the same way and I guess that’s one of the reasons that we found each other.
I’ll miss him for sure and I wish I had spent even more time with him, but as often happens, life gets in the way.
